WOMEN RECALL ERA HEYDAY

Vanessa Gezari, Tribune Staff WriterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Twenty years ago, Diana Ganster rallied with 80,000 activists in Grant Park to support passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a 24-word sentence that would guarantee Americans equal rights regardless of sex.

On Wednesday, she was part of a substantially smaller group that gathered at a downtown club to honor those who fought for the ERA and renew efforts to add it to the U.S. Constitution -- a battle many view as long lost.

"For the public in general, [backing the ERA] is an outdated position," said Ganster, 62, who wore a gold sash from the 1980 rally. "It's not something that is in the forefront as it was 20 years ago; it's not politically sexy."

Decades after the major demonstrations held during the heyday of the American feminist movement, many young women are less concerned about the ERA than about issues such as reproductive rights, rape and campaign finance reform.

But Ganster and about 100 activists at Wednesday's event argued that the drive to ratify the ERA, which failed in Illinois and fell three states short nationally, deserves to be revived.

"I think the desire to have women represented in the Constitution burns on," said Mary Jean Collins, who was executive director of Chicago National Organization for Women in 1980 and played a major role in organizing the Grant Park rally and the march that accompanied it. "We think this is the enforcement of 25 years of work to try to bring women into full equality in society, and we don't want it to be rolled back."

Even if efforts to ratify the amendment in Illinois and two other states are successful now, however, it's unclear whether the amendment would take effect.

Despite the zeal of supporters and a great deal of public attention, the required 38 states failed to ratify the ERA in time for a 1982 deadline set by Congress, which approved the amendment in 1972.

"They're beating a dead horse," said Phyllis Schlafly, one of the ERA's leading opponents in the 1970s and 1980s and president of the Eagle Forum, a national conservative group. "The Supreme Court declared the ERA dead in 1982. The idea that they can now revive it I think is just plain ridiculous."

The amendment's supporters acknowledge that, even if the required number of states were to ratify the amendment, the Supreme Court likely would have to decide whether it could be instituted.

Many women who supported the ERA the first time around say their struggle raised awareness of women's rights and spurred lasting advances. The 1980 rally in Chicago brought together women of widely ranging backgrounds, from nuns and laborers to housewives and students.

Ganster, who lives in Morris, Ill., said she and some of the women she befriended at the time still meet to talk about books and politics. Fighting for the ERA was important, she said, because "we had become eloquent, not even knowing we had that ability. We learned to speak from our hearts because we believed in it so deeply."

Sharon Zurek was 27 when she shot footage of the Grant Park rally. As she watched the lawn fill with white-clad activists, she felt that American women were on the verge of a great victory.

"I just assumed, with all the activity and all the excitement, that [the ERA] would pass," said Zurek, who is working on a documentary about women's changing struggle for equal rights. "When it didn't, it was really devastating. I think the wind got knocked out of our sails."

Like many women, Zurek concentrated on other things after ratification attempts failed in 1982. The Chicago resident now owns a film and video production company, and she says her own industry has become more open to women.

"There's more women producers, more directors, more editors. But it's not even by any stretch of the imagination," Zurek said.

While Illinois activists for women's rights acknowledge that today's women are better off than those who gathered here two decades ago, they say the fight for equality is far from over. The ERA is needed, they argue, to ensure broad equality for women on issues ranging from salary to legal rights.

For members of the post-feminist generation--young women who did not participate in the major struggles of the '60s and '70s but have benefited from the advances won by earlier generations--passing the ERA often seems like a "no brainer," said Aimee Pine, 23, a NOW volunteer.

While Pine said other issues, such as abortion rights and gun control, are more immediate concerns for her and her friends, they still consider passage of the ERA an important goal, in part because fighting to pass it would give them and other young feminists a chance to test their strength.

"At least let us see what we can do," Pine said. "It would say a lot about where this country is if it were to pass."